Device for transferring centrifugal separator-disks.



' P. L. KHVIBALL. DEVICE FOR TRANSFERRING CENTRIFUGAL SEPARATOR DISKS.

APPLICAUON FILED OCT-22, I917.

1918. 2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

L p A d w m P. L. KIMBALL. DEVICE FOR TRANSFERRING CENTRIFUGAL SEPARATOR DISKS'.

APPLICATION FILED 0CT.22, 191?.

m 9 1 no 2 L V p A t w M Di 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- P. L. KIMBALL. DEVICE FOR TRANSFERRING CENTRIFUGAL SEPARATOR DISKS.

APPUCAUON FILED OCT-22, 1917.

Patented Apr. 23, 1918. v

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

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IPERLEY L. KIIVIIBALL, 0F BELLOWS FALLS, VERMONT, ASSIGN'OR TO THE VERMONT FARM MACHINE COMPANY, OF BELLOWS FALLS, VERMONT, A CORPORATION OF DEVICE FOR TRANSFERBING: CENTBIFUGAL SEPARA'IOR -DISKS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented a as, rare.

Application filed October 22, 1917. Serial No. 197,872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PERLEY L. KIMBALL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bellows Falls, in the county of Windham and State of Vermont, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Devices for Transferring Centrifugal Separator-Disks, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The cones or disks constituting the skimmer of centrifugal cream separators, must be removed from the bowl in which they are used, so as to be thoroughly cleansed whenever the separator is not in operation or use, and replaced in the bowl in proper order when the machine is again used. As these disks are used in large numbers in each machine, it is desirable to remove and replace them in mass rather than separately, and devices having this object in view have been produced and used with more or less satisfactory results.

The present invention relates to devices of the character referred to, and its object is to simplify and improve them to the end that the disks may be removed and replaced collectively or in mass without the possibility of altering or disturbing their relative arrangement, and when so removed they may be handled in mass as roughly as may be necessary to effect their'thorough cleansing and drying, and then quickly and accurately replaced in mass in the separator bowl.

The invention consists of a transferring device comprisino a disk supporting stem or standard to which is applied rigidly a guide finger, a fixed stop handle at one end of'tho stem and a movable stop handle at the other end, so combined and arranged that the disks may be engaged in their nested order within the bowl, removed from the bowl, held against escape and disarrangement on the stem when so removed, and washed, scalded, and dried thereon, and then bodily and collectively replaced in the bowl, as I will proceed now to explain and finally claim.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the invention, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 is a perspective View of the transferring device. Fig. 2 is a left-hand eleva tion, Fig. 8 is a right-hand elevation with the guide finger broken away, and 4 is a section taken substantially in the plane of line A B, Fig. 2, showing the supporting stem in section and the stop handles at the top and bottom and the guide finger in elevation. F ig. 5 is a longitudinal section of the lower end of the stem taken in the plane of line C D, Fig. 4:. Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation showing the transferring device applied to a known form of skimmer and bowl forcentrifugal cream separators. Fig. 7 is a top plan view of the skimmer and bowl shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 8 is an elevation illustrating one way of using the transferring device when cleansing the disks or drying them.

In the present preferred construction of transferring device is used the tubular stem or standard 1, of a diameter to fit easily in an ordinary milk feed tube of any wellknown form of cream separator, and of a length sufficient to receive the nest of disks constituting the skimmer and permit of their separation for washing and drying purposes. One end of the stem is provided with a lateral projection 2, preferably in the form of a loop, made of relatively narrow metal, and rigidly fixed to the stem, as by having a portion 3 bent down at right angles and soldered or otherwise permanently applied to the stem. This portion 2 has a continuation 4 projecting over the stem, and this portion is continued down at right angles a distance beyond the lower end of the stem sufficient to extend through the nest of disks when assembled in a separator bowl, as shown in Fig. 6. This extension 5 is herein referred to as a guide finger, and it is arranged parallel with the stem.

The lower end of the stem is slotted lon gitudinally at 6, and at a diametrically opposite point at 7, and in this slotted portion of the stem is a loop-like device 8 somewhat similar to the loop-like device 2 but pivoted at 9 in the stem so that it may be folded up within the stem as shown in full lines Fig. 4:, or by gravity drop into the dotted line position shown in the same figure. As shown, this member 8 has a short extension 10 beyond its pivotal point which engages the end of the slot 7 whereby its further outward movement is arrested, this member 8 when in. the dotted line position standing substantially parallel with the member 2, and so held by the engagement of its end 10 with the end wall of slot 7.

The member 2 is rigid on the stem so that when the transferring device is applied to a nest of disks, as in Fig. 6, with the guide finger 5 extending down through the alined or registering milk passages 11 in the superposed disks 12 and the stem inserted in the milk feed tube, the bowl may be inverted and the disks will fall away from the bowl and down upon the member 2. When all of the disks haveescaped from the bowl on 4 to the stem'and its finger, the transferring device maybe withdrawn from the bowl with its load of disks, and as soon as it is free of the bowl, then it may be turned so that the pivoted element 8 may assume the position shown in dotted lines Fig. 4, thereby providing stop handles at the opposite ends of the stem that will prevent the escape of the disks in either direction. Now, if the transferring device with the disks on it, is turned horizontally, as in Fig. 8, the elements 2 and 8 may be used as handles to operate the device in a cleansing agent, and

when the elements 2 and 8 are of loop-like form these loops may be utilized for suspending the device while the disks are being ried.

After the disks are dry, and it is desired to restore them to the bowl, the disks are allowed to settle down upon the fixed handle and the stem is applied to the milk feed tube invertedly and then the parts are righted and the disks will gravitate down into the bowl in their proper numerical order and in rotative alinement.

The invention as herein disclosed is eshas a milk, feed tube 13 rising integrally from the bowl 1 1, and this tube is surrounded by a distributer sleeve 15 having the milk outlets 16 and the vertical key ribs or columns 17, 18 and 19, one of which, 19, may be wider than the others. The disks 12 are made'with notches 20, 21 and 22 correspond ing with these key ribs or columns, so that the disks can be applied to the distributer sleeve in one way only. The milk passages 11 in the several disks will therefore be alined one with the other and also with the milk discharge openings 16 in the base of the distributer sleeve. The parts thus last described correspond to like parts in the patent referred to but are otherwise differently designated. The guide finger 5 of the device of the present invention when used for transferring the disks, is extended through these passages 11 as previously described, and itsbottom point enters the lateral discharge opening 16; and while the guide finger may be inserted in any one of the three, more or less, passages 11, it will usually be found convenient to apply it to those located next to the wider key rib or column, because there is only one such, and consequently the operators work in assembling or replacing the disks in the bowl is simplified.

It will be seen that while the disks are supported on the stem 1 while being handledin washing and drying, and may be separated one from another, they are nevertheless held in numerical and rotativc order by the engagement of the guide finger with the passages 11, and consequently when it is desired to return the disks to the bowl they can only reassemble in proper order.

To further aid the operator in replacing the disks in the bowl, the wider key rib or column may be provided with an arrow or other indicator 23; and the topmost disk also may be provided with a corresponding indicator.

The transfer or transferring device ma be modified in details of construction to adapt it to skimmers of ditl'erent construction from that herein specifically shown, and for use in connection with machines other than cream separators, so long as its principle of construction and operation as hereinafter claimed is preserved.

lVhat I claim is 1. A transferring device, comprising a stem adapted to engage a fixed part of a machine to be operated upon, a guide finger applied to the stem and extending parallel therewith and adapted to engage the objects to be transferred, a fixed stop extending laterally from one end of the stem, and a pivoted stop foldable within the opposite end of the stem and adapted to extend laterally therefrom and thereby cooperate with the fixed stop to confine the objects in given order on the stem and guide-finger while being transferred.

2. A transferring device, comprising a stem adapted to engage a fixed part of a machine parts of which are to be removed and replaced in predetermined order, a guide finger applied to the stem and extending parallel therewith and adapted to engage said parts to be removed and replaced, a fixed stop extending laterally from one end of the stem, a pivoted stop adapted to extend from the opposite end of the stem, and means to arrest the outward movement of the pivoted stop.

3. A device for transferring nested machine parts, comprising a stem, a guide finger arranged parallel therewith, a fixed stop member at one end of the stem and a complemental stop member pivotally mounted and foldable in the opposite end of the stem and adapted to project therefrom laterally into parallelism with the fixed stop member to cooperate with the latter in retaining the nested machine parts in order upon the device when removed from the machine, the stem adapted to engage openings in said machine parts and the guide finger adapted to engage other-openings in said machine parts, and said stem and its guide finger being of greater length than the aggregate height of the series of nested machine parts to permit the separation of said parts when on the transferring device so as to facilitatetheir cleansing and drying without altering their numerical and rotative order, whereby the parts may be replaced in the machine in proper cooperative relation.

l. A device for transferring centrifugal separator disks, comprising a stem adapted to engage a fixed part of a separator bowl, a guide finger applied to the stem and extending parallel therewith and adapted to engage openings in the disks, a fixed stop extending laterally from one end of the stem and a stop pivotally mounted in and adapted to extend laterally from the opposite end of the stem, said stops when the pivoted stop is extended laterally serving as handles for manipulating the device in cleansing and drying the disks. 7

5. A device for transferring centrifugal separator disks, comprising a stem adapted to engage afixed part of a separator bowl, a guide finger rigidly applied to the stem and extending parallel therewith and adapted to engage openings in the disks, a fixed stop extending laterally from one end of the stem,

and a stop pivotally mounted in and adapted to extend by gravity from the opposite end of the stem, the stem and guide finger serving to retain the disks in numerical and rotative order and the stops serving to prevent their escape while being handled, so that the said disks after they have been removed from the bowl and cleansed and dried may be accurately replaced in the bowl in their proper order.

6. In a device for transferring centrifugal separator disks, a tubular stem slotted longitudinally at one end and having a short slot diametrically opposite, and a stop handle pivotally mounted in the stem in line with said slots and capable of emerging through the longer slot substantially at right angles to the stem and held in such position in the shorter slot, a rigid stop handle applied to the opposite end of the stem, and a guide finger extending from one end of the stem downwardly beyond the opposite end of the stem and in parallel relation to the stem.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 19th day of October A. D. 1917.

- PERLEY L. KIMBALL.

Witnesses:

HERMAN J. SEARLEs, E'rrm VIRGIL.

tloplea of thin patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Fatentt- Washington, D. (2. 

